1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical instrument provided with an image pickup apparatus which is left indwelling in and fixed to a body to pick up an image of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is generally known, endoscope apparatuses, which are medical instruments, are provided with an image pickup apparatus which is image pickup means, designed to be introduced into a body cavity of a patient and perform various kinds of inspections and treatment or the like of a diseased part in the body based on observed images taken by the image pickup apparatus. Examples of such endoscope apparatuses include those introduced into digestive organs such as esophagus, stomach, large intestine, duodenum, which are tube cavities and tubes in the body from the oral cavity or anus and those introduced into the abdominal cavity from the vicinity of the umbilical region by puncturing through the body wall. Various proposals are presented for such medical instruments like endoscope apparatuses as follows.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-517123 discloses an apparatus for operation under laparoscopy or operation under thoracoscopy provided with a first member which moves along a patient's body and a second member which is arranged in the body and is provided with an image acquiring apparatus to acquire an image from the interior of the body and send the acquired image to be displayed, wherein the second member is magnetically linked with the first member so that the movement of the second member in the body corresponds to the movement of the first member along the body. The conventional apparatus for operation under laparoscopy or operation under thoracoscopy has a configuration in which a flexible cable extends from the image acquiring apparatus, the cable is pulled out of the body and connected to a display apparatus and a power supply.